(The Center Square) – The fight over diversity spending and Universities of Wisconsin pay raises is likely just the first round.
The top Democrat in the Wisconsin Assembly, Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, promised to fight for diversity, equity and inclusion on all University of Wisconsin campuses going forward.
“My message is for all of those who recognize the critical importance of our educational institutions here in Wisconsin. We simply cannot allow this to become precedent. We cannot allow Republican legislators to undermine diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. And we must stay focused on building schools where everyone is welcomed, and everyone feels that they belong,” Neubauer said.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Employee Relations on Tuesday voted to authorize the pay raises for nearly 35,000 university employees.
Republican lawmakers put a hold on those raises as part of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ effort to pressure the University of Wisconsin to end its DEI efforts and repurpose nearly 200 DEI administrators.
The hold on the pay raises eventually grew into a showdown over hundreds of millions of dollars for other university needs.
In the end, Vos and UW President Jay Rothman agreed to repurpose just over 40 DEI administrators and put a three-year hiring freeze in place for all diversity-related jobs on campus.
In exchange, the university got its pay raise money and the green light for a new engineering building on the Madison campus.
After the vote, Vos said he’s not done with trying to end DEI spending in Wisconsin.
“We’re not done yet trying to look at how pervasive DEI is throughout the entire system of state government,” Vos told his fellow lawmakers. “I have faith that legislative Republicans will begin a much needed, long-term, in-depth review of DEI in every state government, be it at the Department of Corrections or the UW system, tech colleges or every part of state government. So, stay tuned. This is just the first step and hopefully a lot more to come.”
Neubauer was also at the committee hearing but didn’t speak.
After the vote, she took to social media to criticize Vos’ promise.
“The GOP is continuing to fan the flames of the culture wars without really any regard for the impact that it will have on real students, staff, and faculty. These are real people here in our state,” Neubauer said.
